Pause

When you think about hope, it is not very hard to think of many different sources for hope. We can find hope in our work or the work of others to make the world a better place. We can discover hope in the inspirational words of leaders, teachers, and preachers.

But there is something unique about the hope that comes from Christ. In Christ we find that God does not stay far away from humanity, but becomes a part of us. This hope assures us that in the midst of our lives and world, God will be near to us. In Advent we wait in this hope and discover anew how God has been, is, and will be near to us.

When you are ready, click on “The Word of God” below for today's scripture and then continue to follow the remaining steps of the devotion.

Listen

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Think

John the Baptist was a strange guy, with a unique choice of clothing and taste in food. It was easy to write him off as a crackpot, yet this was God’s guy.

I can only imagine that people listened to him because he was pretty passionate about his message of hope. People would go out to the wilderness to hear it, for crying out loud! It had to be pretty powerful to believe a crazy man in the wilderness.

I wonder how passionate I am about God’s message of hope. I wonder if the people I meet know that I believe it and know it in my life. What about you? How do you share God’s hope?

Pray

Go

Look for hope today.
Look for hope on the faces of the people you meet.
Look for hope in the midst of pain.
Give hope to those you meet and be Christ in the world.

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writer

Andrew Kellner

Andrew Kellner serves as the canon for family and young adult ministries for the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. He is a student at the General Theological Seminary in New York, New York. Andrew founded City Camp in 2009 to offer an urban camping and mission experience to high school youth groups.